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Lawrie apologizes to teammates after outburst

Yells at Lind, argues with Gibbons during rally in ninth on Sunday

5/27/13: The Blue Jays' broadcast shows Brett Lawrie displaying his fire as he yells at a teammate for not tagging up during Sunday's game

By Gregor Chisholm
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MLB.com |

TORONTO -- Brett Lawrie attempted to make amends for his controversial actions during Sunday afternoon's game against the Orioles by addressing his teammates in a closed-door meeting on Monday.

Lawrie created a stir after he became visibly upset when Adam Lind didn't score from third base on a routine fly ball to right field during the ninth inning with the Blue Jays trailing, 5-3.

The 23-year-old Lawrie appeared to scream in the direction of Lind and third-base coach Luis Rivera on his way back to the dugout. He was then confronted by manager John Gibbons before right fielder Jose Bautista quickly stepped in between the two.

"He did the mature thing to do and talked to us during a meeting and everybody moves on," Lind said of the meeting, which took place prior to Monday night's game vs. the Braves.

"He knew what he did, [said] sorry for the guys, just to even have that attention drawn to him. That's not the way you want attention to be drawn to yourself. The way to go about that is to win ballgames and make great plays, have great at-bats and just move forward."

Toronto entered the bottom of the ninth trailing 5-2 with Orioles closer Jim Johnson on the mound in search of the save. The Blue Jays quickly rallied and climbed to within two when Lawrie hit a mid-range fly ball to Nick Markakis for the first out of the inning.

Rivera quickly put up the stop sign because there was no sense in risking an out at the plate, as two runs were needed to tie the game. That decision did not sit well with Lawrie, who seemed incredulous when he looked back at home and saw that Lind had not scored.

Lawrie declined a request to speak with reporters on Monday afternoon, but Bautista did talk, and said that Toronto's third baseman got confused by the situation.

"Everybody noticed his reaction was not the best," Bautista said. "But I talked to him and I understood that he got confused a little bit and caught up in the moment and that's it. It's in the past, got addressed, shouldn't be a problem going forward.

"It was a one-time thing. I don't want to really give it that much importance. I don't think it needs to be talked about too much, if you ask me."

The Blue Jays went on to win Sunday's ballgame 6-5 with a dramatic comeback that was capped by a double off the bat of shortstop Munenori Kawasaki. That, at least, took some of the attention away from the outburst, but Lawrie was his typical defiant self when addressing the issue postgame.

Lawrie didn't admit he made a mistake and instead tried to justify the argument with Gibbons in the dugout.

"Just kind of caught up in the moment of trying to score runs and come back against those guys was all," Lawrie said. "I'm just trying to help my team, that's all. We won the game. It is what it is."

There was some speculation that Lawrie would be benched for Monday night's game for his actions, but that proved not to be the case. Gibbons had him in his usual spot in the lineup and said later in the day that the incident had been resolved internally.

"We talked it out ... had a good conversation and as far as I'm concerned and as far as he's concerned, it's over with and we'll get back to playing baseball," Gibbons said. "That's how I look at it.

"Brett's a grown man. We run into problems along the way, nobody ever does everything right all of the time and it's over with. We had our talk."

Lawrie went 2-for-3 against the Braves on Monday night, but left the game in the sixth inning after injuring his left ankle on an awkward slide into second while stealing a base.